This invention relates generally to trotline holders; more particularly, it relates to a holder which includes a spool that can be conveniently and efficiently managed when a trotline is being accumulated and dispensed, as well as when the spool and its stored hooks are simply being carried to and from a fishing site.
It is well known by people who fish that a trotline is useful in catching many kinds of fish. The standard construction of a trotline includes a main line (which often is 200 or more feet long) that is anchored at each of its two ends, and a plurality of drop lines which are attached to the main line at spaced locations along its length. Each of the drop lines or leaders has at least one hook attached to the free end. This permits a multitude of hooks to be simultaneously immersed in a lake, river or similar body of water where various baits may be offered to the fish that are present.
To use a trotline, it must first be set out along or extended across a river, lake or other body of water. One end of the trotline is typically secured to an anchoring point such as a tree or large rock on the shore, and the other end is typically secured to something that the fisherman can easily locate, which may be another tree, a rock or a bouyant member floating in a body of water. The trotline is generally suspended in such a way that the spaced drop lines hang freely from the tensioned main line. The hooks of the trotline can be baited during or after the primary installation process; once the hooks are baited, the person who is fishing can leave the trotline unattended and return later to see if any fish have been caught. If the first location proves to be unsatisfactory, the trotline may be retrieved and set out at a more appropriate location.
Unfortunately, trotlines are sometimes difficult to handle--because the hooks and drop lines tend to become tangled with each other and with the main line, and the points and barbs of 25 or more hooks constitute a potential threat to the unwary. Thus, setting out and retrieving a trotline can be rather bothersome and it is also sometimes risky--if no safe equipment is available to readily wind up and unwind the trotline. This is especially true in the case of hand-held trotline holders.
Of course, it is true that there have been devices which have been proposed from time to time for handling a trotline with some degree of safety and without a lot of the annoying entanglements between hooks, drop lines, and the main line. Some trotline holders have compartments to segregate hooks so as to prevent entanglement between individual hooks and the drop lines or main line. But to achieve this advantage such holders inherently had to limit their capacity; as a result, generally only one hook could be placed in each such compartment. Exemplary of this kind of device is the structure shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,924 to Roger V. McGee, Jr.
Other devices of the prior art have a relatively large capacity for storing trotline, but their size--and weight--has generally dictated that they be supported by a bracket of some kind, because they would be awkward to handle with one or even two hands. They are generally characterized by a drum supported by a yoke or spindle which must be fixed to a sturdy structure such as a boat. Exemplary of this kind of a trotline holder is the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,629,197 to James B. Duvall.
However, there are some trotline holders which are adapted to be hand-held, and one even provides a protective flange to shield the user's hand from multiple hooks stored on the holder--while the holder is being manipulated; this holder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,862 to Robert C. Romike and Vernon H. Byrd. Unfortunately the protective flange shown in this patent is rigidly attached to the spool, and it restricts access to hooks held in the slots; so it may be difficult for a user to see all of the hooks while the trotline is being stored or dispensed.
The above-described devices have addressed the need for conveniently storing and handling trotline, but it seems they have done so at the expense of efficiency, ease of use, and safety. Some of the above-described devices require time-consuming assembly procedures while others are bulky, heavy, or difficult to use; others probably would be prohibitively expensive to produce because of the inordinate number of exotic parts that are required to build such a holder. Accordingly, there has remained a need for a truly reliable and simple hand-held device which is capable of conveniently accumulating and dispensing a trotline, but which does not sacrifice efficiency and ease of use. It is an object of this invention to provide such a device.
Another object is to provide a trotline holder having a very favorable relationship between its compact size and weight--in comparison with its substantial capacity for storing trotline.
It is a further object to provide a trotline holder that has a means for selectively inhibiting rotation of the spool while accumulating or dispensing trotline, so that a drop line and its associated hook may be safely loaded on or removed from the static holder.
One other object is to provide a compact trotline holder with no removable parts--so as to preclude the loss of any parts during routine transportation or while using the holder over a body of water, etc.
Still another object is to provide a hand-held trotline holder which may be used with equal convenience by both right- and left-handed people.
These and other objects will be apparent from a careful reading of the specification and the claims appended thereto, and from a review of the drawing attached hereto.